Kids 2 Kids Toy Drive

                                        

The Kapco's Kids 2 Kids toy drive will start on Monday, December 1st and last through Friday, December 12th.  The children can donate their brand new, unwrapped toys into a box located in our classroom. Student council members will be collecting the toys from our classroom on a daily basis.

We will also be having a stuffed animal day on Friday, December 5th and a  hat day on Friday, December 12th.  The children can donate a dollar each day to the toy drive and bring a stuffed animal or wear a hat to show their support.

Winter Gear

                           

Please remember to send a separate bag to transport ALL of the winter clothing - there is not enough room in their backpacks.  An extra pair of socks and mittens is also a great idea since we go outside for recess twice during the day and it's no fun to play in wet mittens!  Also, if you could make sure all of the items are labeled, I would greatly appreciate it.  As always, thank you for all of your support!

November 24th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we will be doing Thanksgiving reading and writing activities.  The students will be writing about people and items that they are thankful for.  Additionally, the students will continue to work on sequencing the events in a story and retelling the stories that they read.

This week we will begin unit 4 in math. Your child will be learning how to read a thermometer.  Please practice counting by 2’s to help them read a thermometer.  As you help your child with homework, please guide them with directions as necessary.  The Family Letters we send home for each unit have all of the answers listed and will help you assist your child with their homework.  Look for Home Link 4.1 to come home this week.

We will continue working on our Neighborhoods unit in social studies.

Due to the short week, we will not be having new spelling words or a star of the week.

Special Points of Interest

• Early Release at 11:35 a.m. this Wednesday
• No school on November 27th and 28th
• I look forward to meeting with you and talking about the progress your child is making in first grade!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

November 17th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week in reading we are going to be working on making predictions.  The students will be trying to predict what is going to happen next in the stories they read, based on what they have already read.  When reading with your child at home, pause in the middle of the story and have your child predict what they think is going to happen next.

We are also going to be working on the long a sound, as in the word bake.  Our chunk of the week this week is –ate as in skate.  Remember to have your child practice their spelling words at home every night.  Also, have your child practice using their spelling words in sentences.  

Additionally, we will be working on stretching out sentences.  We will be adding details to our sentences, so that our sentences answer questions like who, what, when, where and why?  The children will also be introduced to verbs and they will be learning how commas are used in a series of words.

This week in math we will be practicing finding the values of collections of pennies, nickels, and dimes.  We will continue to explore domino/dot patterns to provide practice for basic addition facts.  This week’s homework will include Home Link 3.12 and an addition practice sheet.  Also look for the Unit 4 Family Letter to come home this week.

This week we will begin our new social studies unit on neighborhoods and our community.

Special Points of Interest

• Winter is quickly approaching.  Now is the time to start thinking about packing an extra pair of socks and mittens in your child's backpack.
• Please continue to remind your children to bring their take-home books back to school.
• Parent-Teacher Conferences are next Monday and Tuesday.  I am looking forward to meeting with you to talk about your wonderful children!
• Early Release at 11:35 a.m. next Wednesday

November 10th Newsletter

This week in reading will be working on sequencing events in a story.  The children will be practicing retelling stories in sequential order.  The students will learn about imagery through read-alouds.  They will draw pictures of what they visualize in their minds before they actually see the pictures.  We will continue to work on proper nouns and we will be concentrating on days of the week, months of the year, and holidays.  The children will also continue to work on short vowel sounds.  This week we will be working on the l blends, an example is bl as in blanket.  Our chunk of the week this week will be -op as in top.

This week in math we will be introducing dimes and adding combinations of pennies, nickels, and dimes.   We will review graphing by creating our own class graphs.  The children will be exploring dot patterns on dominoes to find the sum of the two parts.  Remember to keep practicing addition and subtraction facts at home.  This quarter, we will be working on addition and subtraction facts to 10.  Look for Home Links 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11 to come home this week.

This week in science we will be learning about the water cycle.  We will also finish reading, learning and writing about African animals.  Our class will be creating a book of their favorite African animals.

Scholastic Book Orders are due this Friday, November 14th.  Go to:  www.scholastic.com/bookclubs  Online Code:  JBVLK

November 3rd Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,
Due to the short week, we will not be doing our regular spelling.  Instead, we will be using this week as a review week.  Our spelling words this week will reflect our study of animals, land and water.  Our spelling test will be on Thursday and it will not be given in sentence form.  The kids will be tested only on the list of words.

In math, we will continue to practice counting up and back on the number line in order to understand addition and subtraction.  We are working on problem solving skills using the hundreds chart and our number lines.  We will also be learning how to tell time to the half hour.  Look for Home Links 3.5, 3.7, and 3.8 to come home this week.

Thank you for all of the help and donations for our Halloween Classroom Party!  The kids had a blast!

We will be integrating our African animal study into our Communication Arts block.  We will also be finishing up our science unit and learning about landforms and bodies of water.

Special Points of Interest

• No School this Friday, November 7th
• Veteran's Day Assembly will be on Tuesday, November 11th
• Remember to dress your child for the cold weather.  They will be going outside for every recess unless it rains.